Steidl Spring/Summer 2017 by Steidl GmbH & Co. OHG

Page 47 of Steidl Spring/Summer 2017

this book presents three independent bodies of work by henry traffic wessel each being a precise sequence arranged to give the viewer the experience of what it felt like to pass through the territory born in new jersey in 1942 henryâ€¨ wessel has been awarded two guggenheim fellowships and three fellowships from the national endowment for the arts he has exhibited extensively including solo shows at the museum of modern art in new york the museum of contemporary art in los angeles and tate modern in london steidl has published eight of wesselâ€™s books including waikiki 2011 and incidents 2013 described the first series â€œtrafficâ€ shows wesselâ€™s photos of drivers stuck in traffic as he commuted in the early 1980s from richmond california to san francisco in the morning rush hour wessel records the determination impatience and blank boredom of his fellow drivers as they navigate a daily drill that seems at times daunting and hopeless â€œsunset parkâ€ is wesselâ€™s series of night photos of the modest working-class neighborhood of sunset park in santa monica over four years in the mid-1990s wessel captured the nocturnal transformation of suburbia into a strange sometimes eerie landscape in his words â€œyou canâ€™t help but notice how the world is reconfigured by the lights at night the spot lighting of particular areas the lack of ambient light the unnatural way that shadows are cast all take us to an unfamiliar placeâ€¦â€ wesselâ€™s final series â€œcontinental divideâ€ takes the viewer on a ride from the dense suburban flatlands of the midwest up across the rocky mountains and down into the sparse desert landscape of the american west wessel depicts its houses shacks street corners sunset park and the highway reminding us of the inherent aesthetics of the everyday the photographic sequence is a fiction an analogy for the thing it represents it is about a particular experience that would not exist without the sequence henry wessel henry wessel traffic sunset park continental divide continental divide 90 book design by henry wessel holger feroudj and gerhard steidl 228 pages 11.7 Ã— 11.4 in 29.7 Ã— 29 cm 105 black-and-white photographs tritone clothbound hardcover with three tipped-in photos â‚¬ 64.00 Â£ 58.00 us 75.00 isbn 978-3-95829-275-8 91